In today’s lending environment, we hear horror stories about struggles that small business owners face in getting loans. Despite the tough environment there are banks across the country that are doing an excellent job helping small business owners obtain loans through the Small Business Administration loan program.

MultiFunding has compiled our first annual list of The Most Committed SBA Lenders in order to honor and recognize the banks across the country who are aggressively helping small business owners through the SBA program. We believe that these banks deserve all of our recognition and support for assisting the economy.

The 127 lenders included in the ranking include FDIC insured banks that made a minimum of 50 SBA 7A loans in 2010. Then, in order to rank them, their volume of approved SBA loans was divided by their deposits at the end of 2010.

MultiFunding’s Annual Ranking of Most Committed SBA Lenders

Ranking

Bank

City

State

Website

1

LIVE OAK BANKING COMPANY

WILMINGTON

NC

liveoakbank.com

2

FIRST COLORADO NATIONAL BANK

PAONIA

CO

firstcoloradobank.com

3

SEACOAST COMMERCE BANK

CHULA VISTA

CA

sccombank.com

4

BORREGO SPRINGS BANK, N.A.

BORREGO SPRINGS

CA

borregospringsbank.com

5

CELTIC BANK CORPORATION

SALT LAKE CITY

UT

celticbank.com

6

NEWBANK

NEW YORK CITY

NY

newbankusa.com

7

OPEN BANK

LOS ANGELES

CA

myopenbank.com

8

FIRST FINANCIAL BANK

EL DORADO

AR

ffb1.com

9

RIDGESTONE BANK

BROOKFIELD

WI

ridgestone.com

10

BNB BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION

FORT LEE

NJ

bnbbank.com

11

PACIFIC ENTERPRISE BANK

IRVINE

CA

pacificenterprisebank.com

12

BANKASIANA

PALISADES PARK

NJ

bankasiana.com

13

PACIFIC INTERNATIONAL BANK

SEATTLE

WA

pibank.com

14

EXCEL NATIONAL BANK

BEVERLY HILLS

CA

bankexcel.com

15

SOUTH SOUND BANK

OLYMPIA

WA

southsoundbank.com

16

METRO CITY BANK

DORAVILLE

GA

metrocitybank.com

17

FORTUNE BANK

SEATTLE

WA

fortunebankwa.com

18

SPIRIT OF TEXAS BANK, SSB

COLLEGE STATION

TX

spiritoftexasbank.com

19

FIRST CHATHAM BANK

SAVANNAH

GA

firstchatham.com

20

PLAZA BANK

IRVINE

CA

plazabank.net

21

CORNERSTONEBANK

ATLANTA

GA

cornerstonebankga.com

22

PACIFIC CITY BANK

LOS ANGELES

CA

paccitybank.net

23

INDUS AMERICAN BANK

ISELIN

NJ

indusamericanbank.com

24

FIRST INTERCONTINENTAL BANK

DORAVILLE

GA

firsticbank.com

25

SURREY BANK & TRUST

MOUNT AIRY

NC

surreybank.com

The 25 top ranked banks in MultiFunding’s ranking of Most Committed SBA lenders made $2.9 billion of SBA 7A loans in 2010, with their collective deposit base of $5.6 billion dollars. In contrast, the 25 largest banks in the country (ranked by deposits) made $3.6 billion of SBA loans with a collective deposit base of $5.7 trillion dollars.

The top 25 banks ranked in our study are helping small business owners in their communities live the American dream during tough economic times. It is staggering how these banks are able to help small businesses in contrast to the largest banks in the country that are leveraging a fraction of their deposits to make SBA loans.

Methodology

While SBA loan activity is only one type of small business lending, it is the only comparative data that is publically available. It is also a good indicator of commitment because the government guarantees these loans, making them less risky and more profitable for banks to make. The study focuses on SBA 7A loans and does not include SBA 504 loans. SBA 7A loans are the vast majority of all loans made through the SBA program. In our study, deposit data is derived from the FDIC website www.fdic.gov. We use yearend deposit data to mark a calendar year. SBA loan data is obtained from www.colemanpublishing.com. All SBA data is only for the SBA 7A loan program and is based upon calendar year gross approvals. Based on the FDIC deposit data and the SBA 7A data, we have ranked the active lenders in the SBA program. Their score is calculated by taking their SBA 7A Loans in a calendar year and dividing the gross approvals by their deposits. The score is designed to show what percentage of their available resources they are using to lend to small businesses. It’s also designed to even out the playing field, and show how each bank is doing comparatively, irrespective of their level of deposits.

Glass Alchemy is a small glass manufacturing factory. Our family business received a 7a loan for expansion in equipment and jobs. With this loan we have been able to add 15 jobs with benefits, expand our product line and broaden our customer base. We took the company money away from the big banks a long long time ago because of the continuous changes in personel and their unwillingness to work with small business. Since moving to West Coast Bank I have worked very closely with the same loan officer for years. We have worked together to help make our business healthier and stronger. He has learned about our business and mentored us on loan requirements.

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